Workwear manufacturers finally realise that women have feet too.

OK. If it was up to me, this site would be an endless procession of big diggers and hot ladies in hard hats. But, as well as trying to be a little more politically correct, I am occasionally badgered by a certain woman who shall remain nameless (Nichola Elvy at Building Health) about the raw deal that women get in the demolition business.

When she’s not concerning herself with the health of UK demolition workers, Nichola’s bothering me about the fact that site footwear is rarely designed with women in mind, or that it’s hard to accessorize a high visibility yellow vest (OK, I made up that last one).

However, Nichola today called to let us know that she’s just invested in a pair of these, and wanted us to let our other demolition ladies know that you no longer have to dress like a large man in order to satisfy modern site safety rules.

“I have just ordered the purple lace-ups from the Women’s Engineering Society but will probably buy the purple riggers for winter (after all you can’t have too many purple suede boots can you!) They aren’t Jimmy Choos (whatever they are) but, hey, they are pretty damn good,” Nichola says. “They’re not the cheapest but definitely the best I have ever seen and me and my girls will never have to wear men’s boots again!

But men, please rest assured, the diggers and hot ladies will be back soon…..sorry Nichola…..the diggers will be back soon!

Komatsu has unveiled a new 40 tonne class high reach; see it in action here.

Those that braved the Icelandic volcano ash cloud to make the trek to Munich for the Bauma exhibition were treated to a number of exciting new demolition machine launches.

For those that were put off by the thought of traveling across Europe with no immediate certainty of return, or those that made it only as far as the first Bavarian beer tent and didn’t get to see the machines, Komatsu has alerted us to a video that shows its brand new PC290NLC high reach machine in action

Two arrested after demolition waste almost kills driver.

I must admit that, here in Europe, we can have a self-righteous attitude to demolition waste recycling. It is true that many European countries have exceptionally stringent regulations governing the disposal of construction and demolition waste. It is also true that some European demolition contractors achieve world-beating levels of recycling.

But, every once in a while, a story comes along that bursts our sanctimonious bubble.

German police have set up a homicide task force following an incident yesterday in which a car driver was almost killed when two youths dumped demolition waste from a bridge over Hamburg’s A1 autobahn.

Thankfully, the 41-year old car driver managed to steer his Renault Laguna to the emergency lane; and while the falling rubble smashed his car’s windscreen, he escaped with minor cuts. However, it could have been considerably worse.

According to initial police reports, two more bucket-loads of rubble were found at the scene and were probably destined to be dumped onto the busy motorway below.

English speakers can read a condensed version of the story here. German speakers can get the full story here.

Video gets up close with high reach machines demolishing Australian hospital.

We don’t get a huge amount of content from the “Land Down Under” (although this is something we’re looking to rectify). So, when we do, it’s extremely welcome.

Case in point this new video from Rosenlund Demolition, the contractor responsible for demolishing the Princess Alexander Hospital in Brisbane. In addition to some nice high reach footage, the film also gets a close look at the attachments at work and uses some nifty split-screen effects. Enjoy.

Rosenlund Demolition – Princess Alexander High Reach Demolition from RosenlundDemolition on Vimeo.

Get the latest demolition news and views on your hand-held device of choice.

Demolition News is still on a growth curve. We’re a few months away from celebrating our second birthday, and we’re still learning. As a result, we play very close attention to the way in which you, our readers and subscribers, interact with this website. We monitor obvious things like daily traffic stats, the number of time our This Week in Demolition email newsletter is read, and the number of times the ads of our sponsors are clicked. But we also monitor less obvious but no less meaningful things like who is our biggest referrer of traffic (Twitter), which search engine do most of our new readers use to find us (Google), and which system are readers using to access the site.

And it is here that the balance is shifting.

When we first started out, Internet Explorer was the preferred option of more than 70% of our readers, followed in distant second by Firefox. However, in recent months, both Internet Explorer and Firefox have lost ground to the new kid on the block – the all-conquering iPhone. With more than 30 million iPhones in circulation and a bewildering 100,000 individual “apps” available or awaiting approval, the device has become the Internet browsing device of choice for millions. And with the launch of the new Apple iPad, the number of readers viewing websites like ours on small, hand-held devices is only going to increase.

As a self-confessed iPhone addict myself, I understand the attraction of being able to browse the latest news while you’re on the train, between meetings or – heaven forbid – in the bathroom. But I am also aware that the way in which our website was originally designed was, perhaps, not the best format for those reading on a small screen on a moving train.

Which is why we have today launched the iPhone version of Demolition News.

From now on, when you visit the site from your iPhone, you will be presented with a neater, more stripped-down and faster-loading version of the site with the latest news stories arranged in chronological order to allow you to see what’s been added since your last visit.

If you’re an irregular or occasional Demolition News reader, you need do no more, other than (perhaps) store demolitionnews.com to your favourites.

However, if like an increasing number of demolition professionals you are calling in daily (and believe us, we have the stats to prove that many of you do) then you can take this a stage further. When you open demolitionnews.com on your iPhone, you will see a large + symbol at the foot of the screen – If you hit that, you can add Demolition News to your device’s Home Screen, ensuring that you’re never more than a finger gesture (that’s a click to the uninitiated) from your up-to-the-minute fix of demolition news, views and insight.

We hope you like this latest innovation and look forward to receiving your comments in due course. And hey, if you hit the down arrow symbol to the right of the Demolition News banner on the iPhone app, you can email us direct.

We look forward to hearing from you.

UK manufacturer swift to act over machine copies on show at Bauma.

While other exhibitors and visitors were enjoying the sunshine, sausages and schnapps that give Bauma its distinctice flavour (and smell) JCB was in court, applying for court orders in Germany resulting in preliminary injunctions being served against manufacturers who were exhibiting the infringing machines at the Munich show. As a result of the action, the machines were removed from the show and impounded or concealed from view.

Tim Burnhope, JCB’s Group Managing Director of Product Development and Commercial Operations, said: “JCB will not tolerate blatant copying of its machines or infringement of internationally-recognised patents and in every instance will act quickly and decisively to stamp out such unfair practices.

“JCB invests many years and many millions of pounds developing and innovating new products and it’s clearly unfair for any manufacturer to then simply free-ride on the results of that investment and research. As an industry we all have to unite to prevent such unlawful practices. ”

The action in Germany concerned infringement of JCB’s intellectual property rights on its backhoe loader and Loadall machines.

We were hoping to run a competition to identify the manufacturer of the offending machine hidden beneath the tarpaulin in our photo but (a) JCB aren’t saying, and (b) we figure the offending manufacturer now has some understanding of German law courts and may just sue us.

So instead, we are offering a 100% genuine, JCB-approved, 1:25 scale JCB 8016 mini excavator model with three attachments for whoever comes up with the most amusing caption for the photo above. Please just hit “Comments” below and let us have your suggestions.

European Demolition Association is heading for Poland; and we’re going with them!

The European Demolition Association is heading Eastwards, taking its latest conference to the city of Warsaw in Poland for the first time. The EDA Spring Conference, which will mark the end of Yves Canessa’s reign as EDA president and the beginning of Giuseppe Panseri’s tenure in the role, will take place from 27 to 29 May 2010 and is scheduled to cover a multitude of timely topics including:

• The EDA High Reach Guidance Notes
• Launch of the EDA’s EU Alert Project
• Decontamination of Hazardous Waste
• Reducing the Administrative Burden

And we’re delighted to announce that Demolition News will be in attendance, gathering news and views, recording both audio and video content and, technology-allowing, broadcasting live from the Westin Hotel venue.

For further details fo the event and to see an English version of the event’s programme, please click here.

If you’re planning to be in Warsaw for what promises to be an interesting event, please be sure to come and say hello. If you’re not, please watch this site for updates and news from the event.

From storming machine gun posts to felling houses, Herb Campbell’s done it all.

We’ve all heard the expression: Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Well, machine operator and demolition man Herb Campbell has been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and worn it out dozens of times. And at 85 years young, he’s still happiest behind the controls of his Kobelco ED190 Bladerunner excavator.

As demonstrated in this excellent article from Florida’s Jacksonvile Times, Herb’s tale is of a live lived; of a love of machines that has seen him felling Japanese machine gun posts with a Caterpillar D8; and of the invention of his own system to prevent beach erosion.

It’s a great article about a fascinating guy – Check it out here.

China reverts to type with yet another enforced demolition death.

You probably need to understand how things work here at Demolition News Towers in order to understand how we can change our minds quite so quickly. We have set up a bank of news feeds that draw in information on demolition and demolition-related issues from across the globe and we react to them literally as they arrive.

Which is why we’re left looking rather stupid and naive this morning having suggested that China was mending its ways on enforced demolitions just 11 minutes before news of another enforced demolition death in the country landed on our screens.

The latest news involves a woman who was crushed under a truck minutes after her mother consumed pesticide to protest the forced demolition of their house in North China’s Hebei province on Sunday. The incident, which occurred in Zhangjiaying village of Xingtai, is the latest in a string of tragedies caused by forced demolitions that have been widely criticized.

The State Council Legislative Affairs Office has started making amendments to the Regulations on Demolishing Urban Housing, banning the use of violence, threat or illegal means to force the relocation of property owners, like cutting off electricity, water, heating and gas. But the revision is still in process.

On April 18, Hu Xifeng had an altercation with the village chief who had brought a team of workers to flatten her house, the China News Service reported on Wednesday.

When all efforts to stop the demolition failed, Hu drank pesticide. But even that did not deter the workers from driving a truck into Hu’s house, crushing her daughter, Meng Jianfeng, to death and injuring Hu’s sister, Hu Qiaofeng, who has been hospitalized. Both Hu Xifeng and Hu Qiaofeng are now out of danger.

The local police have launched an investigation into what the local government has termed a “safety accident”.

Read the full story here.

Eyesore of unfinished homes face wrecking crews as city clamps down.

In news that will gladden the hearts of local lawn service and weed spraying companies, an Albuquerque home builder only has six weeks to get some of his homes in shape, or else the city will tear them down. The unfinished properties were built by Longford Homes and have become crime magnets and eyesores for more than a year.

Neighbors say the group of homes have become well known for attracting prostitution, illegal dumping, break-ins, burglaries, vandalism, even a couple having sex in a garage, since Eyewitness News 4 broke the story last year.

One way or another, the problem will end by June 1st. That’s the deadline city officials have given Longford Homes to restart construction and clean up the weeds and garbage. If that deadline is not met, the city will roll in its bulldozers and flatten five or six of the problematic homes at a cost of more than $60,000 to the taxpayers.

You can read the full story here or watch the Eyewitness News video below.